AN 18 months old child nearly drowned when he slipped—unaccompanied—into the Aire & Calder Navigation at Knottingly.

Luckily 15 years old Ryley Ferguson saw the child fall in and disapear, so quickly removed his coat and went in to save what he discovered was a young boy, from drowning, Alan Tilbury reports.

Left nearby house

It seems the child left the nearby house without his parents realising, and if it had not been for Ryley the circumstances would have been very different indeed, he telling BBC News:

"I didn't have time to hesitate, I was straight in. There was no splash, there was no thrashing around I could just see his legs were sinking. When I got to him he was basically at the bottom of the canal, I saved his life."

Of the incident Ryley's father explained:

"If he had been seconds later that kid would have drowned and no-one would have known where he went. He must have had somebody watching over him."

After his heroic rescue there have been calls for the local council to recognise him for his bravery.